The Water-Ouzel at Home. 103 



My efforts to beguile the excessively wary trout 

 made me an object of much suspicion to a pair of these 

 birds, who seem^ed to claim exclusive hunting rights on 

 that part of the creek. Evidently they had never seen 

 a man do so insane a thing as to whip a stream with a 

 make-believe fly at the end of a long string. Was he 

 fishing for ouzels ? Did he expect their nestlings to bite 

 on that fly? Their behavior made it apparent that a 

 brood of nestlings must be hidden away behind one of the 

 many cascades. It required but little observation to locate 

 the nest — a moss-built affair sunk in the floor of a niche 

 behind a heavy sheet of falling water. The site had been 

 cleverly selected. No increase of volume in the stream 

 could endanger the nest, for the pool had enough fall to 

 spill all the water above a certain level. The diaphanous 

 liquid curtain effectually screened it from observation 

 and protected it from attack by bird enemies. Few car- 

 nivorous birds would venture to seek their prey behind a 

 waterfall. The ready accessibility of this nesting-site for 

 purposes of observation at once suggested to me the 

 possibility of photographing the birds as they came and 

 went in pursuance of their family duties. Their excessive 

 shyness was the only obstacle. In order to overcome this 

 I continued to fish for two days near their particular 

 cascades, pretending not to see them ; and yet it was only 

 the occasional unwary trout that found his way into the 

 creel. My interest for the time being was more ornitho- 

 logical than piscatorial. The ruse succeeded, for the 

 ouzels decided that I was harmlessly interested in my 

 own business, insane though it was, and began to go 

 about theirs with confidence. This probation period af- 

 forded abundant opportunity for the study of their habits 



